Everything That Is Real (Comes Around)

Part Two

            . That was how it started .She traveled with Arthur, the two of them moving from job to job and seeing every inch of the world. They built cities, countries, an entire world from scratch for people trying to find out information that no one spoke of. Each time she felt like she was about to doubt reality Arthur was there to remind her of what was real. They were effective, they got the job done, and they did it better than anyone else working in the field. So they received numerous phone calls and were able to pick and choose whatever clients or jobs interested them. They were between jobs on this hot day in Rome as Ariadne looked out onto a city that she could not build if she tried when the phone rang. It was her cell, her personal one, so she was surprised when she answered and instantly knew the voice on the other end.

            “Did I wake you, darling?” It was Eames and he sounded as amused by everything as always.

            “No, you didn't, which is lucky for you because I tend to get grumpy when that happens,” Ariadne replied. “And I'm not even going to ask how you got this number.”

            “You change your personal line every three months and you always give the new number to Cobb. All I had to do was ask him; he didn't seem to think you would mind,” he said.

            “To what do I owe the pleasure?” she asked, not really in the mood for any of his jokes or taunts. The city of Rome was out there waiting for her to explore it.

            “I called to let you know that you are gaining quite a reputation,” Eames said and there was no humor in his voice. “While that's good for business it tends to attract people you might not want to work for.”

            “What do you know?” Ariadne asked, suddenly worried.

            “Just a rumor but be careful who you agree to work for.” The line went dead and she sighed before flipping it shut.

            “Who was that?” Ariadne turned around to see Arthur buttoning up one of his shirts and already wearing a tie with a vest and coat lying nearby.

            “Eames, he said that our reputations are starting to attract interesting people,” Ariadne said before she set the phone on the table and walked over, wrapping her arms around him. He smiled down at her and it took her a moment to realized that he was dressed more formally than usual. “Wait, where are you going? Did someone call?”

            “Well, yes,” he said before she took a step and smacked him on the arm. “What was that for?”

            “I didn't come to Rome to work. I'm an architect and there is no better place for me to be than this city,” Ariadne said crossing her arms.

            “I know and it's just a meeting to see if we want to deal with this person or not. They are being very hush-hush about who they are and what they want. Considering Eames’ warning this is exactly what we ought to look out for,” Arthur said, sliding his hands into his pockets.

            “You're not going alone,” she said and he shook his head.

            “I don't know what this person wants or who they are. There is no way you're going with me,” he said. Ariadne glared at him.

            “I don't like it when people try to protect me,” she warned but all he did was smile.

            “That's why I keep doing it,” he replied before kissing her on the cheek. “I'll be back soon and we can go on a nice tour of the city. Promise.” Ariadne watched him leave the room, sighed and pulled out a sketchpad to doodle.

***

            Even Arthur could admit that Rome in July might be too hot for his normal suit but that did not make him want to change. At every meeting with any possible client he wanted to look professional so they knew that he was not someone they could manipulate. There was something about the phone call setting up this meeting bothered him. When he tried to trace the number back he had turned up nothing and when he tried to trace it back even further there was no paper trail. Arthur knew he was good at his job and if there was anything to find he would find it. That was why when the client asked for a meeting location he suggested a nice public place where if things went wrong there would be a witness or twelve. He had never been unable to find out anything about a client before meeting them and there was nothing else in the world that could have made him more nervous.

            Ariadne would be furious if she knew he was meeting this person in St. Peter's Plazza but it was a place where he could see everything happening around him and tourists would be too taken in by the church to notice or care what two people were talking about. Arthur admired the scenery of the square near the Vatican Obelisk in the center. There were so many people running around that he wondered whether or not the client would even see him. He was not going to stand around for hours and wait for someone he knew nothing about.

            “It's like something out of a dream,” a voice with an American accent said from behind him and Arthur turned to see a man wearing a simple suit looking at him. His hair was going gray but his eyes were hard as stones. “Is that too cliché?”

            “A bit,” Arthur said standing a little straighter.

            “I'm glad you decided to meet me despite the fact that you couldn't learn a thing about me,” the man said. “Just call me Jim.”

            “Is there a point to this meeting or are you just hear to brag about eluding my research?” Arthur asked feeling impatient. Even with this many people around there was something about this man that made him uneasy.

            “Very well, I'll get to the point. I have a job offer for you, one for a very powerful person. I need to know, however, if you're able to get the best for this job.” Arthur narrowed his eyes.

            “You are talking to one of the best in the field and I have the best architect in the world with me. What more do you need?” he asked and Jim smiled.

            “Dom Cobb,” he said and Arthur must have flinched because he smiled. “He fell off the radar a few months back but it’s rumored that you two worked together for a long time. Is there any truth to that? You don't need to answer, just know that we need the best extractor in the business for this job. My boss is requesting you and your friend by name.”

            “And who would your boss be?” Arthur asked.

            “Robert Fischer.” It was enough to make his blood run cold; there was no possible way they could do a job for Fischer. If Fischer suspected for even a moment that he had seen them before there was no telling what would happen. If he found about their link to Saito or worse, got a hint about the inception things would fall apart. While he had come to trust Saito to an extent, Arthur did not want to think about how the businessman would react if he found out they were working for Fischer.

            “I think we'll pass, thanks.” Arthur turned to leave.

            “You know, I'm a point man as well,” Jim said and Arthur froze in place. “And it really wasn’t that hard to find information about you, Arthur, or your lady friend, or Cobb for that matter. Who knows, maybe if I keep digging I might find some proof of some of your less than legal escapades. Maybe Cobol Engineering is still looking for blood.” Arthur turned around and glared at the man before him who merely laughed. “Mr. Fischer told me I had to convince you to do the job; he never said how. Just think about it before you say 'no' because rejection could have interesting consequences.” Jim walked by slipping him a single business card. “Call me when you've made a decision. And when you assemble make sure you bring the best.” He left Arthur standing in the middle of St. Peter's Plazza with people moving around him. Clenching his fists tightly he picked up his phone and dialed a number as he walked faster than normal..

            “Cobb, it's me, we have a problem.”

***

            Ariadne was halfway through a sketch of a maze that would confuse someone for weeks when the door burst open and Arthur walked in. Instantly she knew that something was wrong; he looked disheveled and out of place. That was something she had never seen in him in the year she had known him. It was enough that she dropped what she was doing and stood. “Arthur, what happened?”

            “We need to leave, now,” he said in a stern voice closing up his barely unpacked suitcase and avoiding her eyes.

            “I can see that but you need to tell me why,” she said walking over and putting a hand on his cheek so their eyes met. “Tell me what happened.”

            “We're being blackmailed into working a job for Robert Fischer,” Arthur said before moving away from her. “We need to get to Los Angeles as soon as possible.” Ariadne stood dumbfounded for a moment before gathering her things as fast as she could. After packing in silence for a few minutes Arthur took a step back and ran his hands through his hair. She had never seen him so furious and so rattled. Even after other jobs that took them to dark and terrifying places he always came back as calm and collected as ever. Something about what this man had said to him had really thrown Arthur off and Ariadne did not want to think about what a person who could do that must be like.

            “Arthur.” She touched his arm and he flinched. “If we need to go into hiding why are we going to LA?”

            “Because this guy wants the best and we both know who the best extractor in the world is,” he said before looking away. “I need to talk to him, in person, as soon as possible. He knows something is wrong and that we're on the way.” Ariadne nodded and she knew that he was right; they needed to get to LA as soon as possible. As they rushed out of the hotel room she could only muse that Rome would have to wait.

***

            Arthur spent the entire trip from Italy back to California on his laptop in near silence. Ariadne wanted to break it and ask what was bothering him so much but as she thought about it she realized what was wrong. Arthur thought that, somewhere along the line, he had made a huge mistake. Someone that he could not find any background on somehow had leverage not only over him but over their entire team. He seemed to think that as someone who did all of the research it was also his job to cover their tracks. From what she gathered from Arthur and Cobb they had worked together for at least two years and for some time before Mal passed away. They had never had a problem with jobs catching up with them until the Cobol job. They were now going to Cobb’s house to tell him that not only did he have to do a job for the person they had performed inception on, but they were being blackmailed into it. The entire thing was one step away from ruining everything Cobb had risked to get back to his kids.

            Ariadne looked at Arthur and she knew that the last thing he wanted to do was take that away from his former partner. As they walked through the LA airport she decided it was time to take the initiative and confront him, try to ease his worries, something, anything that would take the burden off of his shoulders alone. He was carrying both of their bags as usual, mostly because Ariadne really did not want to argue about it, and their PASIV in his other hand. They had contacts at the Rome airport as well as in New York and LA that kept the machine moving without being seen by security. When she took his arm and stopped him in the middle of the airport he turned and looked at her. “Is something wrong?” Arthur asked his eyebrows creasing in concern.

            “I don't know what exactly is going on but you can't blame yourself for it,” Ariadne said and held up a hand to silence him before he could protest. “You asked me to be your partner and partners share burdens. So when we're done running around you're going to share. I'm not staying in the dark.” The two of them stayed completely still for what felt like a long time but she did not release his arm.

             Arthur set one of the bags on the ground and pulled her in for a rough kiss. Ariadne was a little surprised since he was not one to flaunt their physical relationship in public but when he pulled away he did not say a word; he just gave her one of his half smiles and nodded before picking up her bag. They continued through the terminal until they saw Cobb waiting for them. He did not look terribly thrilled to see them.

            “I want to hear every detail of what is going on before we even get to my house,” he said without bothering to say 'hello.' Ariadne did not entirely blame him because their arrival could mean the downfall of what he had struggled to get back to for two years. She listened from the backseat while Arthur summarized the meeting in Rome. He said that the mysterious Jim had some sort of leverage on them that he was using to blackmail them into doing a job for Fischer. Cobb remarked that it did not seem like a business tactic that their former mark would use but was more characteristic of his god father. Arthur agreed but he also thought there was a good chance that Fischer did not know who exactly he was dealing with when he hired 'Jim.' When he added that he could not find any information on Jim and that he had not covered their tracks well enough, Ariadne wanted to tell him that he had done his best, that something might have happened that was out of his control, but nothing she said would have helped. Whether he had missed something or this other point man had somehow outmaneuvered him, Arthur would not accept either failure lightly.

            Ariadne had only been to Cobb's house once not long after the inception job. Miles had been there and she had formally said goodbye to her old professor and told him that she was not coming back to school. He did not seemed surprised but said that she would always be welcome back into his class whenever she wanted. She met Phillipa and James and it was almost eerie how much both of them looked like Mal. She really wished she had good memories of Cobb's wife because from what Arthur had told her, Mal had been a wonderful person and nothing like the shade in the dreamworld.

            When they pulled up Miles opened the door and the two children came running out. They nearly tackled Arthur and it made her smile to see how good he actually was with these kids. He scooped up James in one arm and Phillipa took his hand, pulling him through the door. Cobb and Miles helped her with the bags and Ariadne walked into the house. As James and Phillipa dragged Arthur around the house and then proceeded to include Ariadne in the shenanigans she knew Cobb was waiting for the kids to go bed before confronting the two of them. She blushed a very deep shade of red when Phillipa mentioned how pretty she was and asked Arthur for his input. He agreed and gave her one of his half smiles before going back to showing James how to build a nice tall tower that would not fall over.

            The sun had just gone down when Cobb put the kids to bed. Miles excused himself saying that he really did not want to hear about any illegal things they had done or that they might do. Arthur looked tense sitting next to her on the couch as Cobb sat down. He rubbed his temples before he sat back and looked at both of them.

            “Is there any way of finding out what kind of leverage he has over us?” Cobb asked and Arthur flinched a bit as if the question was a physical blow.

            “I spent both of the plane rides trying to find out but I couldn't find anything from anyone. None of our contacts in the business know anything and if they do they aren't talking. I don't want to resort to any unconventional ways of getting information,” he said and Ariadne wondered if he had used those methods in the past.

            “So for all we know he could be bull shitting us or he really might have something that could send us to jail or worse.” Cobb leaned forward and stared into nothing for a long time.

            “Maybe we're over thinking this,” Ariadne said and they both looked at her. “I know that Saito won't be happy if we take this job but he might understand the circumstances if he knows what they are. Maybe we should just do the job and leave. Fischer looked right at you as you were walking out of customs and didn't know who you were. If we keep him out of direct contact with Eames or anyone else he got a look at in the first level maybe we'll be okay.”

            “Fischer has had training which means he has a better chance of remembering details than a normal mark,” Cobb said creasing his eyebrows. “Then again it sounds like we might not have much of a choice. I can't risk leaving my kids behind, not again, and if that means I need to take on another job then I guess I’ll do it.”

            “He claimed he wanted the best, like he already knew who that was. It makes me think me think he has something that could incriminate Yusuf and Eames as well,” Arthur said and Cobb nodded.

            “Call both of them and get them to come out here as soon as possible. Tomorrow I want you to find a place to rent where we can work; I'm not bringing work home. Get information on the mark as soon as possible and make sure this guy knows we are doing the job,” he said and Arthur nodded.

            “I'll call them right now so they can get on the next flight,” he said before leaving Ariadne alone in the living room with Cobb. She smiled at him before he looked up and watched her carefully. .

            “How are things?” he asked and she blinked once.

            “Oh, they're going well. We apparently have quite a reputation which is one of the reasons why we got pulled into this. Just a lot of jobs and traveling really,” Ariadne said and Cobb gave her a sideways glance.

            “That wasn't what I was talking about,” he said and without meaning to she blushed.

            “Oh, that's going well too. You know him, it takes time for him to open up, and I still don't think he trusts me completely, but baby steps. I'm patient,” Ariadne said twisting the hem of her shirt and not looking into the extractor’s eyes. Cobb could read people and the thought of him reading into anything she said was not something she wanted.

            “There is a guestroom down the hall that you can have and, depending on your sleeping arrangements, the couch is a pull out,” Cobb said and she nodded, surprised that he did not offer any more insight on Arthur or try to pry more information out of her. Arthur walked back into the room and seemed to be having an argument with someone on the phone. Cobb nodded and walked out of the room leaving the two of them alone. Arthur finally hung up, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before releasing it.

            “Let me guess; you were talking to Eames.”

Arthur groaned. “I didn't want to give specifics over the phone so trying to get him to fly to LA on short notice was not exactly something he was thrilled about. Yusuf wasn't thrilled either until I offered to pay for his plane tickets and Eames said he 'wouldn't give me the satisfaction' and then hung up. I need to call Jim and find some way to get information on the mark without giving away any locations.” He visibly winced in pain. “I have a pounding headache right now though.” Ariadne stood up, took his hand and smiled a little.

            “We've been traveling non-stop since we left Rome. You, we, need sleep. You're no use to anyone if you're sleep deprived and you know that; we've been down that road,” she said and he nodded releasing a deep breath. “Come on.” Arthur did not resist as she gently led him down the hallway. Both of their bags and the PASIV were sitting in the middle of a nice guest bedroom with a small bathroom off to the side and a large bed in the middle. It was not until Ariadne saw the bed that she realized just how tired she really was. They did not say much to each other as they each unpacked their bags. Ariadne stripped down to her pajamas and a tank top as usual and Arthur pulled on his normal sweats and an undershirt. As he folded his things she could not help herself as she stopped to admire him. While he was cool and calculating there was something about the way Arthur moved that was as smooth as his suits. It was like he never hesitated; even the little actions were well thought out and planned. He looked up and saw her watching and Ariadne blushed, looking away.

            She did not fight when she felt arms wrap around her and Arthur pulled her close. She could feel him against her, his breath on the back of her neck. Ariadne tried to slow her pounding heart and even out her breathing but when he put a soft kiss on the back of her neck she stopped trying. She leaned into him and closed her eyes, loving the feeling of him holding her. Arthur placed soft kisses along the edge of her shoulders and neck while moving her hair out of the way. Ariadne leaned back so she could look him in the eye. She wanted to say something, she wanted to tell him that this was not his fault, that even if it was she did not care, but the words would not come. Instead Ariadne moved from his arms, pulled him close and kissed him hard putting as much feeling behind it as she could. Arthur walked backwards and fell back onto the bed taking her with him. She leaned over him, searching his eyes for some indication hinting at what was going on in that head of his. Ariadne could only decipher one thing behind those dark eyes: that Arthur did not want to be alone in this fight. And when she leaned down and kissed him again she hoped that it was enough to convey that he wasn't and he never would be.